VICKY FUNARI ::::
born 1963, Alexandria, VA
Lives and works in Vallejo, CA

SERGIO DE LA TORRE::::
born 1967, Tijuana, Mexico
Lives and works in Oakland, CA and Tijuana

Vicky Funari is a filmmaker whose previous films include Paulina, Live Nude Girls UNITE!, and skin-es-the-si-a. Sergio de la Torre is a photographer, performance and installation artist whose works have focused on issues regarding migration, tourism, diaspora, labor, surveillance technologies and identity politics. together, Funari and de la torre created the film MAQUILAPOLIS which documents the lives of carmen and lourdes, two workers at a “maquiladora”—massive sweatshops just over the border in Tijuana, Mexico, owned predominantly by mulitinational corporations. The women further their own activism by co authoring their stories on videotape, offering a personal perspective on the story of globalization as they struggle to survive life in a globalized city. This film details the hardships of the workers, dealing with environmental toxins, the abuse of labor rights, housing problems and women’s rights issues. With the global economic crisis of 2001–2003 and the relocating of factories to china for the even cheaper labor, the women of MAQUILAPOLIS also face an uncertain economic future.

Paisajes is a series of black and white photographs of landscapes of some of the 900 assembly plants in the city of Tijuana. the first industrial parks were installed in the outskirts in the 1960/70s. due to the fast growth of the city, tijuana grows by one acre a day and the industrial parks are now simultaneously residential zones.